ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK (29 page)

“Court?” It came out in
a squeak.

“You’re awake.”

“Yeah. Um … I’m naked.”

“Ah … yeah. Your
clothes were soaked and full of soot. I promise I didn’t look. I covered you
with the sleeping bag before I took off your clothes.”

I sighed. “Okay. Are
you … naked?”

“Um … yeah. Sorry. My
clothes were wet too. We were both shivering, you had a fever, and I didn’t
know what else to do. I saw this in a movie once. The guy was freezing after
falling into a lake and the woman undressed him, got naked, and crawled under
the blanket with him to warm him up. It worked in the movie. I guess it worked
here too.

“How convenient. You
swear you didn’t peek or cop a feel?” Jeez, Adela. He saved your life, again,
and all you can think about is whether or not he looked at your naked body or
touched it? And really, would Court actually lower himself to feel up an
unconscious girl?

“No! I would never take
advantage of you or any girl that way.”

I sighed and relaxed. I
could tell he told the truth.

Until he said, “Well,
just a little.”

“What?”

“No! God, no. I didn’t
touch you. I only saw one breast. Then I looked away. I swear. You have no idea
how hard that was. I should be recommended for sainthood.”

“Sainthood?” My voice
squeaked again and I coughed. “I suppose you’d like me to thank you for getting
me naked and sleeping with me.”

“Well, no, not when you
put it that way, but I was shivering too until I crawled under the cover with
you. Then I warmed up instantly. Are you upset?”

I thought about that
for a couple of seconds. “No. Surprised, but not upset.” I’d never been naked
with a boy before. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it.

“Well, if it makes you
feel any better, I’ve never been naked with a girl before.”

I swear he must have
just read my mind again. “Really?” Somehow, on some level it pleased me to know
that. I stayed with my back against his chest, feeling it expand with each
breath he took and I wondered what his skin would feel like under my fingers.

“Are you feeling any
better?” Court’s breath warmed the nape of my neck.

“A little. I guess I
caught a cold.”

“God, I thought you had
pneumonia or something.”

I took a deep breath
and coughed. “I think I’ll be okay. Where are we?”

“Don’t know exactly, but
the house was vacant. We stumbled on it, almost literally, after escaping the
forest fire.”

“Forest fire!”

“You don’t remember?
You were pretty out of it. I had to carry you for a long time and we almost
didn’t make it because the fire circled around us so fast.”

“You carried me?”

“Yeah.”

His lips smiled against
my neck and I couldn’t help but smile too.

“How long?”

“A couple of hours, I
think. My arms almost fell off. Well, not really, but they are still a little
sore.”

I suddenly had newfound
admiration for Courtland Reese. He’d saved my life three times now and this
last time sounded extremely difficult. A part of me wished I’d been conscious
for it but another part was glad I’d missed it.

“There’s a small pile
of firewood outside in the shed. If we had food, we could stay here indefinitely.
That is until the owners come back and if they do, we could get arrested.”

Adela turned her head
toward me. “Arrested?”

“Yeah, squatters are
usually frowned upon. But under the circumstances, I think we’ll be okay. We
can stay here for a while, at least until you’re strong enough to travel and
our clothes dry. Then we should head out. This isn’t our house and I have no
interest in being arrested for trespassing.”

“Good point.”

Court reached out and
touched our clothes. “They are still pretty damp. Are you hungry?”

“Yeah, a little. What
did you have in mind?”

“I don’t know. I can’t
go out and hunt until my clothes are dry.”

We stayed still under
the cover. I didn’t move to face him and he didn’t move behind me at all, from
what I could tell.

“Hold on,” he said and
got up from the floor.

“Whoa,” I said and
covered my eyes with my hand.

“Whoops.” He covered
his privates with his hands. “Sorry, I forgot. I got excited when I remembered
the oatmeal and hot chocolate in the backpack. Just keep your eyes closed for a
couple of minutes.”

I peeked through my
fingers and saw his backside as he rummaged through the pack. The smooth ripple
of muscle at his shoulders, the slick curve of his backbone ending at the firm seat
of his tush got me a little squirmy. When he finished fishing through the bag,
he stood and turned toward me.
Wow
. I closed my fingers tighter over my
eyes again. I had never seen a naked guy before. Something told me this was an exceptionally
nice one though.

“Keep your peepers
closed,” he said, laughing. “I need to pour water into the cup and set up the
grill.”

“They are closed,” I
giggled.

When he finished, he
pulled back the covers and slid in next to me. I scooted a little away from
him.

“Sorry, it’s difficult
to get under without contact.”

“It’s okay,” I said,
not wanting to sound too much like a prude but didn’t want to appear like some
nympho either and prayed the clothes would dry soon. “Are you sure there’s
nothing we could wrap around our bodies while our clothes dry?”

“Pretty sure. The bag
you carried with the extra clothes got left behind while I tried to save us
from becoming crispy critters.”

“Oh.” I smiled, a
little embarrassed. “It’s just that … it would be nice to sit up.”

“Wait. I have an idea.”
He popped up to a sitting position. Easy for him—all he had to worry about was
his lower half.

“What?”

“We can sit and face
the fire and drape the sleeping bag over the front of us. You can have most of
it. You have more to cover.”

“Okay, let’s give it a
try.”

“You first.”

I sat, pulling the
sleeping bag with me, holding it over my breasts and crossing my legs in front
of me, leaving Court completely exposed. “Ooops.” I giggled nervously and closed
my eyes as he sat next to me and covered himself. Our backs were still bared
and Court reached around and pulled the excess sleeping bag around my back.

“Thanks.” I smiled and
sneezed.

“You’re welcome. Warm
enough?” he asked as he put his arm around my shoulder.

“Yeah, I think. How
about you?” I coughed.

“I’m good.”

I glanced behind him and
his entire backside was still uncovered.

“How can you be fine
when your back is hanging out?”

He leaned forward, and using
the strap of the backpack, he grabbed one of the cups from off the grill and set
it in front of me. I reached for it but he grabbed my hand.

“Careful. Give it time
to cool. It’s a little hot.”

I left the cup on the
floor and stirred in the oatmeal, inhaling the rich scent of brown sugar,
cinnamon, and apples. “Smells good.” I licked my lips and spooned some into my
mouth. “Tastes delicious. Now if I could just get rid of this cold everything
would perfect. Well, almost perfect,” I added as I thought of Ambrosia and
Aaron and wondered if there was anybody keeping them warm tonight.

We ate the oatmeal and
sipped hot chocolate. I coughed almost every two minutes. We must have sat like
that for hours.

“How long do you think
we can stay here?” I asked.

“Well, at least until
our clothes are dry.” He grinned and sipped his hot chocolate.

I glanced around the
room. “There is literally nothing in here except us and the few things we
brought in. Even the walls are bare, no shelves or anything.”

“Except for the brown
wooden panels lining the lower half of the wall. Every room but the kitchen has
them,” Court added.

“I think I heard my
mother refer to that stuff as wainscoting one time when we were at the hardware
store. She had talked about decorating the twins’ room with it, only she wanted
white. My dad talked her out of it for some reason.” I studied my hot chocolate
as though I might be able to see in it just where my family was. I worried
about my little sister and brother. They must be so scared.

Almost as if he knew my
thoughts, Court said, “Adela, I’m sure the twins are in good hands.”

“What if we don’t find
them?”

“We will. Maybe not
tomorrow, maybe not the next day, but we won’t stop looking until we find them.
I’m sure they are in a shelter somewhere safe. I think we are about half a day’s
walk from the next town. We can stay here until you’re better. I don’t want you
collapsing again and I don’t think I’m up to carrying you anymore yet.”

“I guess I’m pretty
heavy.”

“No, you’re not heavy
at all, for short distances. I’m not a body builder and holding a hundred
pounds in my arms for a long time was a little difficult. I had you on a board for
a while, similar to the one you and Max had me on, but it had a tendency to
attract passengers.”

“What?”

He laughed and told me
about how the board got heavy from the wet leaves piling under it as he pulled
me along. “I knew you couldn’t be gaining weight and nothing seemed to be on
top of you. I finally looked under the board and all the mud and leaves had
accumulated underneath, making it very tough to pull.”

I coughed, and then
coughed again as an annoying tickle gained momentum in the back of my throat. I
couldn’t stop hacking and had to put my cup of hot chocolate down before it
spilled.

“You sound like you’re getting
worse, not better.”

“No,” I said, finding
my voice again. “This is just a tickle. I am feeling much better. Maybe not up
to walking yet, but better.”

“We can give it a day
or two. Tomorrow I’ll go hunt up something to eat. We still have enough water
to last a couple of days. I haven’t really had a chance to see what’s in the
kitchen. My first priority was getting us dry and warm and I don’t think you’d
like me traipsing off to the kitchen in my birthday suit.”

I picked up my cup
again and sipped thinking about that for a minute and the silence between us
hummed through the air and stuck between us like a brick wall. Was he thinking
about me being naked? I cleared my throat. “Um … the fire is getting low again.
Can you reach a log to put on it?”

“Yeah.” Court leaned
over, grabbed a log, and placed it on top of the charred one and within a few
seconds, the fire flamed. He put on another and it soon caught as well. “At
this rate, I might need to put on some wet pants and go outside to get some
more wood.”

I nodded.

“I think I’ll do that
now since it isn’t raining. You’d better close your eyes.” He pushed the
blanket off and stood. This time, I did close my eyes.

“I’ll be back in a
jiff.”

I coughed and stared at
the flames. Court sure was different from Max. Much different than I thought he
would be. Max probably would have told me it was my turn to go get the wood, sick
or not.

I jumped as Court
shoved open the front door. His arms were loaded with wood and he dropped them
in a messy heap next to the fireplace. “I’ll go check and see if there is
anything in the kitchen we could use.”

He came back in just a
couple of minutes empty handed. “Nothing there. I didn’t see a ‘For Sale’ sign
anywhere outside. I wonder who owns this place.” He unbuckled his pants and
quickly slipped back into the sleeping bag before I even realized he’d undressed
again.

“How are your burns and
your ankle?”

“Not too bad thanks to
a great girl I know.”

I smiled. “Good. Let me
see your hand.”

He held it out to me
and I took it in mine, turning it over and studying the back side. The blisters
had all but disappeared. I looked at his face and our gazes locked until that
irritating tickle grabbed hold of my throat and I coughed again.

“Want to lie down?”

“I think so. My head is
hurting from all the coughing.” I lay back on the carpeted floor and Court came
with me, pulling the sleeping bag over us. I lay on my side and he draped his
arm over my shoulder. His warm breath against my neck comforted me. We were
naked under the covers, but he clutched my hand in his and he never touched me
anywhere else. I was beginning to like sleeping with Courtland. Tomorrow I would
ask him to tell me how the rumors started, but for now, I closed my eyes and
drifted off to sleep.

Sunlight warmed the
lids of my eyes and they blinked opened. The sun filtered in through the curtainless
window, warming the room. I lay next to Adela, my entire body stiff, afraid to
move a muscle. If I moved, she would know how much I wanted to make love to her.
I closed my eyes and tried so hard not to think about this girl, so naked and
smooth beside me. An impossible task. I thought I would go crazy with desire
for her, but I didn’t want it to be like this. Not here, not under these
circumstances.

I peeked over her head
at the fireplace. The fire had died out completely. I hesitated to get up and
start it again for fear of disturbing her. The more sleep she got, the better.
She’d hacked on and off throughout the night so I knew she didn’t get a very
restful sleep. Neither had I, but not because of her coughing.

She stirred next to me
and I thought about what lay deep in the pocket of my pants.

“Good morning.” I
whispered the words just in case she wasn’t awake.

“Hmmm …” Her hand
brushed against my thigh and I stiffened in more than one place. My heart
pounded against my chest ready to explode, and it wasn’t the only thing. I wasn’t
sure if I would be able to …

Adela turned to face me
and I stared at her beautiful sleepy brown eyes.